UK Personal Debt Continues To Grow

Published on March 2, 2010

The personal debt burden continues to grow in the UK as latest figures show that it increased by 0.8% last year and now stands at £1,463bn.

There has been no let up in the growth of personal debt in the UK during the last twelve months as figures for the end of January 2010 indicate that the total personal debt burden increased by an annual rate of 0.8%.

The high levels of personal indebtedness appears to be hitting all sections of the community as the average household debt burden now stands at £58,040, however this figure does include outstanding mortgage liabilities.

Projections for the 2014-15 fiscal year outlined in the December 2009 pre budget report show that this average household debt burden is likely to increase to £116,493, which is double the levels of household debt reported in the year to January 31st 2010.

Weakness in the economy continues to have an influence on everyday lives as the figures show that a property is repossessed every 11.4 minutes and 1,841 people are made redundant every day. In addition, someone will be declared bankrupt or insolvent every 3.69 minutes, on average.

Each adult, on average owes over £30,000 including mortgages which represents 129% of average earnings and as the average mortgage for each household now stands at £111,474, the impact of redundancy, or reduced earnings can easily be assessed on the financial health of individuals and the economy as a whole.